The greatest gifts: gratitude and memories

The excitement of the holidays is upon us. The last few weeks I shared two creative ideas: a memory box and a gratitude wreath. Sometimes the best gift does not come wrapped in pretty paper.

Claudia Jacobs

The excitement of the holidays is upon us. The last few weeks I shared two creative ideas: a memory box and a gratitude wreath. Sometimes the best gift does not come wrapped in pretty paper.

Dear Claudia,

While reading Sunday's paper I came across your article, "Add a wreath of gratitude to your decorations," and I wanted to share some pictures and an idea that I had my students do for the whole month of November. We started with an empty tree skeleton and every day we wrote one thing that we were thankful for on a leaf. Each day we added 40 new leaves to the tree. In no time we had an amazing and beautiful tree.

— Jen Sabatini, ELA & social studies teacher of fifth- and sixth-graders at Roscoe Central School

After recent events, I knew this was the perfect weekend to share the students' Gratitude Tree.

"It was great to be able to express your feelings." — Kiara "This project was fun-I was able to tell what I was thankful for in my life." — Damien "I liked this project — it was awesome. I was able to remember things that I was thankful for." — Stephanie "I felt that this project was a good way to let others know what I was thankful for in my life." — Taylor "Making the thankful for tree out of leaves was creative because I could write down how I was feeling, and I could see the things that my friends were thankful for." — Nik "Today I am thankful for my mom and dad." "Today I am thankful for my pets." "Today I am thankful for my family." "Today I am thankful for my life." "Today I am thankful for school."

Dear Claudia,

I love your memory box idea. My husband of 43 years had a stroke seven years ago that left him with pretty bad aphasia (inability to communicate) and significant memory loss. He doesn't remember very much of our past at all. And he has physical limitations, too. He can't use his right arm or hand and he can't drive because of cognitive impairments. It's very difficult for me to think of gifts for him other than clothes, which are always his least favorite gift. I have so many sweet memories of our life together and he has none. I am going to give him a memory box for Christmas. I will have to read most of them to him because he can't read more than a few words at a time, but that's OK. And I have three weeks to think of them.

You can share my story, but I would prefer you leave my name out. It is not that I don't want anyone to know about it, but I want him to be the very first person. I'm not even telling any of our children what I'm doing until after he has it.

I will let you know how he likes it.

Thank you so much for such a beautiful idea."

This reader has promised to let me know how the memory box turned out and was received by her husband. Take time to cherish your loved ones and be thankful.